Survey on family chicken farms in the
rural area of NDjaména, Chad

L Y Mopate and M Lony

[Editors' Note: This
article, edited and translated from the original French by E F Guèye, was first published
in the INFPD (International Network on Family Poultry Development) Newsletter Vol. 8 No.
4, October-December 1998, and is reproduced with the permission of the editors of INFPD
and the authors]

Abstract

An investigation on the status of family
chicken systems was carried out on 57 chicken farms, located in 10 villages in the rural
area of NDjaména, Chad. It was found that chicks represented 51.2 percent of the
flock. The sex ratio was six hens for one cock, and the average flock size per household
was 16.3±11.1 chickens. Hatchings represented the most important intakes, while the
principal offtakes consisted of mortality, sale and predation. The causes of mortality
were diarrhoea, ectoparasites and respiratory diseases. The average mortality rate was 17
percent and the production efficiency 16 percent. Average traits of 125 hens were age
19±11 months, weight 1.2±0.3 kg, number of eggs per clutch 10.5±2.8, number of clutches
per year about three, hatchability 79 percent, survival rate of chicks at weaning 55
percent, brooding period 52 days and interval between clutches from 80 to 90 days.
Adequate disease control, reduction of chick losses and improvement in husbandry practices
are recommended.

Introduction

The poultry flock of Chad, officially
estimated at 11 million in 1984 (Doutoum et al 1984), had increased to 24 million birds in
1997 (Abba et al 1997), representing an annual growth rate of 10 percent. The poultry
flock is dominated by the domestic chicken "Gallus gallus". Family
chicken keeping is a valuable asset for producers, especially in rural areas. It allows
peasants to satisfy their unforeseen financial needs. For example, the purchase of cereals
in the period of food scarcity is partly covered by income generated from the sale of
birds. Moreover, after sale or barter (very popular in some regions of the country),
family chickens contribute to acquire ruminants. Additionally, chicken meat consumption is
a significant protein source which helps to cover the nutritional needs of the rural
populations (Mopate et al 1997a). However, family chicken development in rural areas also
has to cope with difficulties related to husbandry, health and production (Provost and
Boredon 1968; Anonymous 1978; Aklobessi et al 1992; Abba 1994; Mopate et al 1997b; Guèye
1998).

To collect data on the production and
reproductive performances and identify the constraints, a survey was conducted on farms in
the rural areas of NDjaména, Chad. Poultry keepers of this study area have
benefited from interventions in poultry disease control provided by the Volet
Animaux Villageois (VAV), a component of the Appui au Développement de
lEconomie Rurale (ADER) project.

Materials and methods

The study was carried out on 57 farms
located in 10 villages in the sub-prefecture of rural NDjaména. They represented 10
percent of those who benefited from specific technical support provided by the project.
Six voluntary chicken farmers per village were randomly selected for the survey, which
lasted five months. All chickens of every farmer were taken into account for a collective
survey, twice a month. In a flock, at most five hens identified by the plumage and rings
were subjected to an individual investigation. The age groups considered were chicks (0 to
2 months), cockerels and pullets (3 to 5 months), hens and cocks (6 months and more). Data
on the flock structure, the production and reproductive performances as well as
health-related problems were collected. Information on the marketing of birds and eggs as
well as the use of the generated income was also gathered. The software "Epi
info" (Dean et al 1990) was used to record the data collected after each visit, and
the data processing was carried out using the same software.

Results and discussion

Flock structure and production efficiency

The number of chickens in the study was
1125. The flock structure is presented in Table 1, on the basis of an equal number of male
and female chicks after hatching.

Table 1:
Structure of surveyed chicken flocks in the rural area of NDjaména

Male

Number

Frequency, (%)

Female

Number

Frequency, (%)

Chicks

288

25.6

Chicks

288

25.6

Cockerels

129

11.5

Pullets

171

15.2

Cocks

36

3.2

Hens

213

18.9

Total

453

40.3

Total

672

59.7

The average flock size per household
was 16.3±11.1, and a sex ratio of 6 hens for one cock was observed. A core of breeding
birds is preserved to maintain the flock. Moreover, there were more chicks (51.2 percent
of the flock), which confirms previous findings reported in the area of North-Guéra
(Mopate et al 1995).

The observed hen / cock ratio was double
that of North-Guéra (Mopate et al 1995). Interventions offered in the NDjaména
rural area tend to stabilize the flocks and to persuade farmers to keep high numbers of
hens. Moreover, average flock sizes per household were lower than those reported in other
locations; i.e. 27 birds in North-Guéra (Mopate et al 1995) and 25 in Eastern-Chad
(Mopate et al 1997a). The methodology used as well as the period of investigation could
partly explain these differences.

During the survey, it was recorded that
207 birds came into the farms and the number removed from the flocks was 326 (Table 2).
The offtakes constituted 29 percent of the total flock and the intakes were 18 percent.

Table
2: Frequencies of intakes and offtakes in surveyed farms

Intakes

Offtakes

Item

Frequency
(%)

Item

Frequency
(%)

Hatching

87.4 (n = 181)

Death

58.3 (n
= 190)

Gift

8.2 (n = 17)

Sale

18.7 (n = 61)

Purchase

2.4
(n = 5)

Predation

12.0 (n = 39)

Service
rearing

2.0
(n = 4)

Home
consumption

8.0 (n = 26)

Accident

3.0 (n = 10)

Total

100.0
(n = 207)

Total

100.0 (n =
326)

The main predators were wild cats, raptors
and snakes. Besides, villages situated near the roads were primarily affected by accidents
due to vehicles. Other accidents were those occurring within the homesteads (e.g. fall of
an article on a chicken, trampling, drowning of chicks in drinkers).

The frequencies of offtake according to
the age groups of chickens (Table 3) showed that the chicks undergo significant losses,
especially through mortality, predation and accidents. Similar high losses were reported
in the traditional farms (Anonymous 1983). Moreover, the pullets and the cockerels were
more exploited in village households. They made up 50 percent of sold birds and 70 percent
of consumed ones.

Table
3: Frequencies (%) of offtake according to the chicken age in the surveyed farms

Category

Death

Sale

Consumption

Predation

Accident

Chicks

79 (n = 151)

2
(n = 1)

-

95
(n = 37)

40
(n = 4)

Pullets

11
(n =20)

26
(n = 16)

23
(n = 6)

-

20
(n = 2)

Cockerels

4
(n = 7)

23
(n = 14)

46
(n =12)

-

30
(n = 3)

Hens

6 (n = 11)

39
(n = 24)

31
(n = 8)

5
(n = 2)

10
(n = 1)

Cocks

0
(n = 1)

10
(n = 6)

-

-

-

The average mortality rate was 17 percent
(26 percent in chicks, 5 percent in cockerels, 12 percent in pullets, 5 percent in hens
and 3 percent in cocks). Specific interventions in poultry disease control offered to
farmers of the study area could explain this low mortality rate. Furthermore, the average
mortality rate and overall losses were lower in males (cockerels and cocks) than in
females (pullets and hens). This might be explained by the fact that males are more
exploited and, thus, are removed earlier from the flocks, whereas females remain longer in
the farms.

The production efficiency rate was defined
as the number of exploited birds to the total number in the flock, which are more than 2
months old ratio (i.e. excluding chicks, which are generally not exploited). This rate
amounted to 16 percent. This is low but acceptable, taking into account the duration of
the survey and the existence of peak periods in the year for sales (festivals, foreseen
disease outbreaks, etc.). However, annual production efficiencies of more than 90 percent
were reported in Chad (Doutoum et al 1984; Mopate et al 1997a).

Economy

The average prices, in F CFA (1 US$ ~ 500
F CFA) and by age group, were: 1,100 for pullets; 1,020 for cockerels; 1,200 for cocks and
1,485 for hens. The average price in markets located in the study area was about 1,200 F
CFA per chicken. This was higher than average prices reported in markets of North-Guéra,
varying from 600 to 700 F CFA (Mopate et al 1995). The presence of various middlemen and
urban dwellers from the capital-city, the higher purchasing power of the buyers and the
reduced offer of birds all contributed to increase the prices.

The sale of 61 chickens generated 75,000 F
CFA for the poultry keepers. This amount was used as follows: 40 percent for the
acquisition of usual domestic goods (soap, tea, sugar, oil, condiments, etc.), 30 percent
for the purchase of clothes and shoes, 20 percent for the business and 10 percent for
purchasing other chickens. These results confirm those reported by Mopate et al (1997a).
The two main reasons for consuming chicken meat are the special banquets for family guests
(70 percent) and the usual home consumption.

Health problems

:Principal symptoms observed by farmers,
prior to the death of their chickens, are given in Table 4. There is a high prevalence of
ectoparasites, diarrhoea and nasal flow as causal agents.

Table
4: Frequencies (%) of observed symptoms prior to the death of chickens

Symptoms

Chicks

Pullets

Cockerels

Hens

Ectoparasites

33.3

20.0

33.4

-

White
diarrhoea

16.6

-

-

-

Yellow
diarrhoea

16.6

20.0

33.3

33.3

Green
diarrhoea

11.1

40.0

33.3

33.3

Red diarrhoea

-

-

-

16.7

Sudden death

5.6

-

-

-

Nasal flow

16.8

20.0

-

16.7

The white diarrhoea was observed only in
chicks, while the red diarrhoea was noted in hens. In contrast, the yellow and green
diarrhoea affected all categories. The white diarrhoea in chicks might be pullorum.
Indeed, Mopate et al (1997b) reported similar symptoms in the central-eastern area with a
high mortality rate (68 percent). The red diarrhoea is due to coccidiosis. Provost and
Boredon (1968) reported that the local hens in Chad constitute reservoirs of oocysts but
are clinically less affected. The yellow and green diarrhoeas are the symptoms of
infectious diseases such as Newcastle disease, fowl typhoid, fowl cholera, etc. The
ectoparasitism constituted a major problem in the surveyed flocks. These external
parasites were mentioned by the chicken farmers in North-Guéra as being their second
concern after Newcastle disease (Mopate et al 1997b).

Reproductive traits

The average age of the 125 laying hens in
the study was 19±11 months. The average live weight and clutch number were 1.2±0.3 kg
and 3.0±2.7, respectively. The average liveweight is similar to that reported by
Anonymous (1978); however, the hens generally continued to gain weight after the first
laying period. For 12 percent of hens studied, the causes of offtake were mortality (33
percent), sale (27 percent), predation (20 percent) and domestic consumption (20 percent).

Average reproductive parameters per hen
recorded over 2 laying cycles were as follows:

number of eggs laid 10.5±2.7

number of hatched chicks 8.5±3.0,

hatchability rate 79 percent;

<survival
rate of chicks at weaning 55 percent,

brooding period 51.9±9.2 days

interval between clutches from 80 to 90 days.

The interval between clutches allowed for
about 3 clutches per year. All the eggs laid were generally incubated. The laying period,
depending on the number of eggs laid, ranged from 8 to 12 days. The number of eggs laid
was consistent with those reported by other authors (Aklobessi et al 1992; Abba 1994;
Mopate et al 1995). The hatchability rate was lower in comparison with that of
North-Guéra which was given to be 85 percent (Mopate et al 1995). The following
hatchability rates (percent) have been reported in Chad: 65 (Aklobessi et al 1992) and 30
to 70 (Provost and Boredon 1968). The average brooding period was consistent with the
value reported by Abba (1994). The interval between clutches was close to that reported by
Aklobessi et al (1992). The annual clutch number in this study was lower than that
observed by Mopate et al (1995) who reported 4 clutches per year. However, Aklobessi et al
(1992) noted 3 to 4 clutches per year. The feeding and husbandry practices may explain
these differences.

Conclusions

The study highlighted production and
health constraints on family chicken farms in the rural area of NDjaména, Chad. The
flock structure showed that there were more chicks than adults in the village flocks.
Besides, the chicks underwent more losses, resulting from diseases and unsuitable
husbandry practices, which led to high offtakes through mortality, predation and
accidents. Data on the flock structure and the production efficiency emphasized the
socio-economic role of chickens in the village agricultural systems. The health problems
related to infectious diseases and parasites constituted a bottleneck in the development
of this poultry sector. The reproductive performances of local hens of the study area were
generally consistent with values reported for local hens in other African countries.
Interventions to be recommended should take into account not only the control of
infectious diseases and parasitism but also the control of rearing risks, which may lead
to high losses in